A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



were required to know especially the requisites of true confession and baptism 

 with a simple understanding of the faith. 



In the 14th century it was usual to reverse the modern practice, and 

 the student acquired his benefice before attending the university, and frequently 

 with the express object of maintaining himself there." If the complaints of 

 the University of Oxford are to be believed, it was a wise precaution to secure 

 a benefice and with it a regular income before proceeding to the university. 

 Once there, a living was only obtained with difficulty, even men with 

 established reputations seeking ecclesiastical preferment in vain." The 

 estimate of academical attainments held by the officials of the London 

 diocese may, perhaps, be gathered from the entire absence of any entries 

 against the names of Hertfordshire incumbents instituted before 1390." 

 From this time, however, the possession of degrees is carefully noted, and 

 the modern reader is struck by the comparative scantiness of graduates among 

 the parochial clergy. At Albury, Amwell, Anstey, Little Hormead, Meesden, 

 Thorley and Widford no graduate held the living in the 14th or 15th 

 century. Yet Albury belonged to the Treasurer of St. Paul's Cathedral, 

 Amwell to the Prior and convent of Hertford, Anstey to the Dukes of York, 

 Hormead and Meesden to St. Mary de Graces, London, Thorley to the 

 Bishops of London, and Widford to the Prior and convent of Bermondsey. 

 Perhaps Oxford had cause to complain. The greatest patrons of learning, 

 according to this test, were the Abbess and convent of the Cambridgeshire 

 house of Chatteris, who presented two Masters of Arts, two Doctors of Law, 

 and one Bachelor of Divinity between 1394 and 1495 to their living of 

 Barley out of a total often incumbents for the period." The Carthusians of 

 Sheen presented graduates continuously to the vicarage of Ware from 1451 

 to 1480, but this town must have been especially attractive to a man of parts 

 from its facilities for communication. The scholar was receiving extended 

 patronage in the second half of the 1 5th century, but it must be remem- 

 bered that he was a pluralist whenever possible. 



Against the prevalent abuse of pluralities the Church had made an official 

 pronouncement at the Fourth Lateran Council of 121 5. This Peckham 

 strove with all his might to enforce, and the constitutions of Ottobon also 

 dealt with the subject.'" As usual a dispensing power was reserved to the 

 papacy. As early as 1219a note appears against the record of the institution 

 of a rector of Aldenham to the effect that the presentee had licence from 

 the papal legate to hold a second living in plurality."" The modern excuse 

 of poverty was not adduced, and no difficulty in obtaining dispensation seems 

 to have been experienced by John de Fleburth, who desired to acquire the 

 living of Stubton in Lincolnshire, valued at 25 marks, in addition to his 

 rectory of Hadham, which was worth £^0 the year.*" Some forty years 

 later the living was valued at 100 marks, but this was no obstacle to the 



" For licences of absence to rectors about to study at the universities see Line. Epis. Reg. Sutton, 

 Memo. fol. 206-7. The practice was continued until the late l 6th century, when it was attacked by the 

 Puritans and fell into disfavour. In 1559 Cranmer granted a dispensation to Thomas Butler, aet. 14., a 

 scholar, to hold the living of Watton at Stone. This was confirmed by Elizabeth (Harl. MS. 7048, fol. 252). 



** Anstey, Ep'utolae Academicae Oxon. 168. '^ See Newcourt, Repert. \, passim. 



"" Ibid. 799. " See Capes, The Engl. Church in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, 22. 



'^ Rot. Hugonis de Welles (Cant, and Yorlc Soc), i, 137 ; see also Cal. Papal Letters, i, 245. 



«o Cal. Papal Letters, ii, 35. 



300 



